Only 10 days left for the City of Heroes® Design a Loading Screen Contest!

Only 10 days left for the City of Heroes® Design a Loading Screen Contest!

Please note: You must be 13 years of age or older to participate and a legal resident of the United States (excluding the State of Rhode Island, and excluding Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, military installations and commonwealths), or Canada (excluding Quebec) or the European Union, as of Friday, August 20th, 2010 to participate in this contest.

Submissions open from 11:00 p.m. CST (5:00 p.m. British Time / 6:00 Central European Time) Friday, August 20th, 2010 until 11:59 p.m. CST (5:59 a.m. British Time / 6:59 Central European Time) Monday, September 20th, 2010.

2010 has certainly been a creative year as far as our City of Heroes contests go. We asked you to design a Valentine's card for War Witch and you sent us tons of romantic and pink-laden cards. We asked you to collage EMPulse's and TheOcho's face in various environments and we got the most humorous situations we could have expected. We asked you to design billboards or graffiti that determined your allegiance to the Loyalist or Resistance factions and you showed us how resourceful you would be in Praetoria. We asked you to write haikus to show us how excited you are to get started with City of Heroes Going Rogue and you've proven to us that excitement could be contained in a mere 17 syllables.

Well guess what? It is only going to get better...starting now!

This time around, not only are we asking you to be creative, we may also reward some of you with a spot into the game, meaning that if your loading screen design is selected as a winning entry, you may well end up seeing it in the game...along with thousands and thousands of other players!

Isn't that the optimal creative reward?

Now, how do you go about designing a loading screen for City of Heroes? This is where things get even more interesting so bear with us!

For starters, download the following loading screen frames: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. There are three layouts each for Hero-side zones (in blue) and Villain-side zone (in red), plus a modified Hero frame for use with Hazard zones. You'll see that each frame file is composed of several different layers including:

• a map background layer;
• 3 masked photo layers (with a masked-out image area, making it easy for players to simply drop their photos into place);
• a text layer (which can be edited with the name of the zone you're working on).

Now for the fun part! Roam around your favorite Paragon City and Rogue Isles zones as a photographer, taking artistically composed shots of the zones' coolest landmarks and vistas. In particular, focus on the signature areas that make the zone unique. As you set up your shots, look for interesting camera angles (perhaps a very low or high angle or maybe a shot with your subject in the middleground and some other object in the immediate foreground)--in other words, get creative! When you're done, take your best three shots and plug them into the provided frames, and voila. Here are a few requirements you will need to follow for your entries to be valid:

• You must submit your entries in .PSD format ONLY (there is a free Photoshop Elements trial available here if needed);
• The resolution for each entry is set at 1024 x 768 exactly and entries should remain that size;
• Use Sendspace.com or https://www.yousendit.com/ to send us your unflattened image in .PSD format;
• Items placed on the photo layer must be your own creation. While we do expect you to ONLY use in game screenshots, it still has to be your own original work;
• Please use the highest Ultra Mode settings that your computer allows in order to take screenshots for the photo layer(e.g.: shadows, water, ambient occlusion, texture quality, anti-aliasing have to be turned up; environment reflections must be turned up where applicable);
• NO character should appear on the screenshots. The focus should be on the zones themselves;
• If you submit more than 1 entry from a given side (i.e. 2 or more Hero-side screens), use a different frame on each. Yes you are allowed to submit several entries but you may only place once as a Contest Winner.
• Last but not last, make sure you familiarize yourselves with the list of zones eligible for this contest. Some of them are excluded from this contest!

Your submission will be judged on originality, creativity, and visual appearance. Feel free to create loading screens for whichever zones you want, but please note that we'll probably receive many entries for commonly used hub zones and fewer entries for outlying areas. You may increase your changes of winning by focusing some attention on the more obscure zones. We reserved the right to make alterations to the winning entries.

Do NOT post your submission publicly! Enter only through email. We will share the winning entries with you when the contest concludes.

Here's how to enter:

1) Between 11:00pm (CST) Friday, August 20th, 2010 and 11:59 PM (CST) Monday, September 20th, 2010 send an email to cohcontests@ncsoft.com with the subject heading "City of Heroes Design a Loading Screen Contest." Include the following information in the body of the email:

A. Your first and last name
B. Your age
C. Your location -- city, state/province, country
D. A contact phone number (this will only be used as an additional method of contacting you regarding this Contest if we need to reach you)
E. Your full mailing address (Important: This is where your prize will be mailed to)
F. The sentences: "I permit NC Interactive, Inc. et NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown and any comments which I may make about myself, this competition I provide for advertising and promotional activities. By submitting an entry to this competition, I accept and agree to be bound by the Official Terms and Conditions"

2) Include your Loading Screen file as an attachment.

There will be three (3) Winners and their prizes are:

One (1) First Place Winner Will Receive:

• One (1) 6 Months Subscription to City of Heroes® (Estimated retail value $90.00)
• Super Booster V: Mutant (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster IV: Martial Arts (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster III: Superscience (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster II: Magic (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster I: Cyborg (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Mini Booster: Temporary 30 Day Jetpack (Estimated retail value $4.99)
• Wedding Pack (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Mac Special Edition In-Game Item Pack (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Good Versus Evil In-Game Item Pack (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Ghoul Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Freakshow Boss Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Carnival of Shadow Harlequin Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• PPD Hardsuit Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Praetorian Clockwork Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Knives of Artemis Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Carnival of Shadows Ring Mistress Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• *Possible entry inclusion in the City of Heroes® game (No retail value)

Estimated Total Prize package value: $174.91

One (1) Second Place Winner Will Receive:

• One (1) 3 Months Subscription to City of Heroes® (Estimated retail value: $45.00)
• Super Booster V: Mutant (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster IV: Martial Arts (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster III: Superscience (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster II: Magic (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster I: Cyborg (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Freakshow Boss Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Carnival of Shadow Harlequin Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• PPD Hardsuit Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Praetorian Clockwork Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Knives of Artemis Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Carnival of Shadows Ring Mistress Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• *Possible entry inclusion in the City of Heroes® game (No retail value)

Estimated Total Prize package value: $94.95

One (1) Third Place Winner Will Receive:

• One (1) 1 Month Subscription to City of Heroes® (Estimated retail value: $15.00)
• Super Booster V: Mutant (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster IV: Martial Arts (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster III: Superscience (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster II: Magic (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Super Booster I: Cyborg (Estimated retail value $9.99)
• Freakshow Boss Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• Carnival of Shadow Harlequin Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• PPD Hardsuit Costume Power (Estimated retail value $0.00)
• *Possible entry inclusion in the City of Heroes® game (No retail value)

Estimated Total Prize package value: $64.95

We reserve the right to award prizes to further Winners (Runner-ups) if their submission is selected to be used as a loading screen in the game but don't place in the top 3 Winners, in which case their prize would be:

• One (1) 1 Month Subscription to City of Heroes® (Estimated retail value: $15.00)
• two (2) of the following packs:
  • Super Booster V: Mutant (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Super Booster IV: Martial Arts (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Super Booster III: Superscience (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Super Booster II: Magic (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Super Booster I: Cyborg (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Wedding Pack (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Mac Special Edition In-Game Item Pack (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • Good Versus Evil In-Game Item Pack (Estimated retail value $9.99)
  • *Possible entry inclusion in the City of Heroes® game (No retail value)

And last but certainly not least, make sure you read the official City of Heroes Design a Loading Screen Contest Rules and Conditions before entering the contest!

Don't dawdle and start now, 6 weeks are sure to fly by! Happy designing all!